CHAPTER XV.
AEROPLANE WINS!
Matt supposed that the automobile must have broken down somewhere onthe road. His friends had not arrived in time to help him, so he wasthrown upon his own resources.
While he and Miss Manners were racing toward the a?roplane, Matt wasmeasuring his chances. The appearance of the second Hindoo, on theother side of the opening, complicated the dangers of the situation.
If these Hindoos were armed, as the girl had declared, then the casewas indeed desperate. In making its start, however, the _Comet_ wouldbe running away from Aurung Zeeb, and straight toward the other Hindoo.This second man would have to leave the road or be run down; and if thestart was made quickly enough, the _Comet_ could get away from AurungZeeb.
"Sit there," cried Matt, lifting the girl to a seat on the lower plane."Hold on," he added, starting the motor, "and don't move."
The girl's small fingers twined convulsively into the hand-holds. Mattdropped into his own seat and turned the power into the bicycle wheels.Slowly they took the push, the great wings lurching and swaying as thea?roplane moved.
Would it be possible for the machine, unaided by a crew of men behindthe wings, to take to the air before the trees on the opposite side ofthe opening interfered?
This was a momentous, nay, a vital, question, and could only be solvedby actual trial.
Out of the tails of his eyes Matt saw Ben Ali rising groggily to hisfeet. He flung up his arms and shouted.
Crack!
From behind came a bullet, ripping through the canvas of the upperplane, but, fortunately, doing no damage to the machinery. Aurung Zeebwas doing the firing.
And this same Aurung Zeeb had failed Ben Ali once in a dangerous pinch.This had caused a rupture of the friendly relations between the twomen, but their differences had evidently been patched up. Now AurungZeeb was doing his utmost to help Ben Ali--and, perhaps, to landhimself in the same trouble in which Dhondaram had been entrapped.
Another bullet was fired, but Aurung Zeeb must have been shooting as heran, for his aim was poor.
Faster and faster raced the a?roplane, and Matt kept measuring thedistance between the machine and the trees on the farther side ofthe opening. The Hindoo, in the road ahead, was running out of thea?roplane's path like a frightened hare.
By then, Ben Ali had joined in the chase, but the speed of the _Comet_was too great for the pursuers.
They were close to the edge of the timber, very close, when Matt feltthe wings beginning to lift. A dozen feet farther and they were in theair.
In a flash the power was switched from the wheels to the propeller. Thea?roplane dropped a little before it yielded to the thrashing blades ofthe screw; then it picked up the lost headway and arose.
The upward tilt was frightful, but necessary if a wreck in the treetopswas to be avoided.
Never a word had come from Margaret Manners. White as a ghost, she heldto her place, swaying her body to preserve a poise against the tilt andpitch of the huge framework.
The wheels brushed against the outer ends of the tree limbs, but themachine continued to glide into the air, walking upward as thoughclimbing the rounds of a ladder.
If the motor had failed from any cause, there could have been noharmless gliding back to earth. A sheer drop downward would have beenthe result.
But the motor performed its work, and the trees presently hid theHindoos and screened the _Comet_ from any further attack.
Then, and not till then, did the king of the motor boys draw a fullbreath.
"Are you holding on, Miss Manners?" asked Matt.
"Yes," was the reply in a stifled voice.
"You're not afraid?"
"No."
"Bravo! We'll soon be back at the show grounds. You have seen the lastof Ben Ali."
High above the trees Matt brought the _Comet_ to an even keel, thenlaid out in a straightaway flight toward the lake. This time he did notfollow the Elgin road, but struck across country the nearest way home.
That was not the first time Margaret Manners had had a ride in thea?roplane. Some time before, when, under the name of Haidee, she hadtraveled with the Big Consolidated, she had ridden on a trapeze swungbelow the machine. It was against Matt's will, and only a trick ofBurton's had made it possible for the girl to make the ascension. Atthe time she was under hypnotic influence, and could not realize whatshe was doing. So, it followed, this was really the first ride she hadever taken in the a?roplane while mistress of her own faculties andable to understand her situation.
She behaved admirably, and did not even cry out when the wings tiltedsideways, or ducked forward with the seeming intention of hurling herand Matt to the earth.
There was no talk between the two. In silence Matt attended to hiswork, drove the _Comet_ at speed over the show grounds, circled, andcame down in the roped-off space set apart for the machine.
The crowds were still lingering, waiting for the a?roplane to return.Cheering began as soon as the _Comet_ was in sight, and was kept upuntil she was safely on the ground in the position from which she hadoriginally started.
Carl and Ping were waiting, too, and the eyes of both boys were bigwith astonishment when they saw and recognized Margaret Manners.
"Vell, py shiminy grickets!" exclaimed Carl.
The girl smiled at him wanly as Matt helped her from her seat.
"You and Ping take care of the machine, Carl," cautioned Matt, as heled Miss Manners to the guard ropes and parted a course for her throughthe jostling mob.
"Hurrah for Motor Matt!" shouted some one. "He goes out alone and comesback with a passenger!"
A laugh followed the cheer.
"What's the price for a trip on the _Comet_?" called some one else.
"Where does your air-ship line run?"
"Give me a ticket to San Francisco!"
Matt met the joking good-naturedly and piloted Miss Manners to thecalliope tent. The girl was tired and worn out.
"You'd better get a little rest, Miss Manners," Matt suggested. "Whatyou have passed through this morning would have shaken nerves muchstronger than yours."
"I don't want to rest," she answered; "I want to talk. You have savedme again, Motor Matt, but what is the use of it all if I can't leavethis country and go to England, or back to India? Ben Ali will find meagain."
"You are through with him," said Matt, "just as I told you. A man hascome from the British legation in Washington to get you and send youaway by the first boat leaving New York."
"The man who came to Mrs. Chadwick's in Lafayette said the same thing,"answered the girl wearily. "It seems as though there is no escaping BenAli."
"Has he hypnotized you many times since he took you from Mrs.Chadwick's?" asked Matt anxiously.
"Only once. I gave up hope, and went with him without trying to resist.He said he intended to send me back to India, but not until the rajahhad paid him a lot of rupees."
"He treated you well?"
"He always treated me well--in his way--but the horror of going intoa trance and saying and doing things I know nothing about is moreterrible than ever to me. It was the fear of a trance that made mepromise not to make Uncle Ben any trouble."
"Who was the man who impersonated the agent of the British ambassador?"
"I had never seen him before."
"I thought that perhaps he might have been the man who sold tickets inthe ticket wagon for Burton--the one who was with the show when you andBen Ali were traveling with us."
She shook her head.
"I should have known that man if it had been he."
"Where did the man take you?"
"On the train somewhere. I thought we were going to Washington until wegot off the train at a little station and met Uncle Ben. It was then hethrew me into a trance, and when he awoke me we were at a little housenear the place where we went this morning to wait for Dhondaram. AurungZeeb was at the house, and so was the other Hindoo--a man I had neverseen before. You are sure," the girl asked tremblingly,
"that thisother agent of the British ambassador is really the person he pretendsto be?"
The girl's lack of confidence was pitiable. She had suffered so muchthat Matt could readily understand her feelings.
"I am positive, Miss Manners," he answered gently. "You must rest now.I will have Mrs. Harris come and stay with you for a while."
The girl did not object, and Matt had soon found Mrs. Harris and senther to the calliope tent.
Two hours later, while Matt was lounging around the front of the animaltent, a tired party consisting of Burton, Twomley, and McGlory arrivedfrom the direction of the street-car line.
"You Matt!" cried McGlory. "Why didn't you wait and give us a chance?"
"If I'd waited much longer," answered Matt, "there wouldn't have been achance for anybody. Did you see me coming back from the oak opening?"
"Did we?" echoed Twomley, putting his monocle in his eyes. "By Jove, Ishould say we did. Fancy! You up aloft, sailing as nice as you pleasewith Miss Manners beside you, and Burton, McGlory, and me trampingalong the road."
"What was the matter?" asked Matt.
"Matter?" fumed Burton. "What's the matter when you set out in anautomobile and don't arrive where you're going? The motor bucked, threemiles out of Grand Rapids, and you sailed right along and never paidany attention to us. McGlory, Twomley, and I started to walk the restof the distance, when we saw the machine couldn't be fixed up for anhour or so, and before we'd gone a mile you sailed off in the directionof the show grounds--and never looked our way! Oh, blazes! I'm donewith automobiles."